In the Monkey Room (3-4 years) we offer a stimulating and caring environment. Activities are planned to stretch your child's skills and imagination and we identify 'next steps' for each child to help them achieve their potential.  We have six areas of learning and development which we frame our activities around.  These are:

Communication, Language and Literacy Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy Knowledge and Understanding of the World Creative Physical Development  Personal, Social and Emotional Development

(see 'The Curriculum' to find out more).

Playing and learning

In the Monkey room we have a craft table for free expression, a carpeted area with comfy cushions and lots of interesting books for some quiet time. There is a role play area which has a toy kitchen, pretend food and also a well equipped dressing up area so that we can encourage role play to extend the children's imagination and learning.

We have many toys such as train sets, big cars, babies,cots and construction toys such as building bricks and popoids and much much more.  Our different play zones are created to inspire every child's learning. Toys and resources are all regularly checked for breakages, and rotated to keep refreshing the children's learning.

 We have a computer in the Monkey room with educational programs for the children to use freely.  These help develop fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, as well as aiding learning in all the key development areas.

Safety and Security

Child to staff ratios in the Monkey Room are in accordance to Ofsted requirements and are at least 1 member of staff to 8 children.

 We strive to help children feel safe and happy within the Foundation Stage so that they are able to learn positively and gain experience and skills which they can build on in school.

We have a recruitment policy which ensures that all staff are employed following strict practice.  All staff are interviewed by 2 members of the senior team and also undergo enhanced CRB and health checks to ensure that there are able to care for children in the nursery.  All staff are also required to have annual appraisals and personal development plans to ensure that we continue to provide the best and highest standard of care possible to each and every child regardless of their ability. In this way, we can provide a learning and development plan for each child which will encourage their growth to their own potential.

Going outside

We use outside as an extended classroom.  We are usually outside twice a day and will use every opportunity to extend learning outside as we recognise that many children will enjoy this environment above the classroom experience.  Our daily planning means that we will look at each child and be guided by the preferences and development as to where they will learn best - an example would be counting and colour sorting cars we can see in the distance from the decking in the garden rather than working at a table with counters.

We are very lucky to have a lovely large playing area outside with the added bonus of a 2 decked areas. Directly outside there are many things to interest the children, such as cars and scooters, a climbing frame, big toy houses, skipping ropes, hula hoops and even 2 castles. Having a large decked area is ideal for those muddy days so we can still go outside and enjoy the fresh air. We have use of the field directly opposite the nursery, which is the ideal place for exploring, bug hunting and going for nice strolls.

Food

We provide breakfast, lunch and tea at the nursery.  All meals are cooked on site using as much organic foods as possible.  We also provide a mid morning and afternoon snack for the children.  Snacks usually consist of fruit or cheese and crackers, but we try to vary the foods provided to encourage the children to try new and different foods. Water is always available throughout the day, and a choice of squash and milk is available at snack or mealtimes.

We cater for different dietary requirements, so please inform us of these when submitting your registration form and we will adapt meals to suit.

We observe all children to monitor each child's individual needs so we can plan accordingly. Your child will be appointed a key person when they start at A Step Ahead, but all staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have.